GBP/USD: Pound out of market favor

The GBP/USD pair is trying to regain the upside, but it's clear that the Pound is out of market's favor: the pair fell to a fresh 2-week low of 1.3481, and while dollar's sell-off help it bounce back, selling interest around 1.3560 has rejected the advance. The pair is back to square one daily basis, trading around its opening level after a mixed bag of UK data. Industrial and Manufacturing production rose by more-than-expected in November, both up 0.4% monthly basis, and with October readings suffering modest upward revisions. The trade deficit of the kingdom, however, was larger-than-expected, printing £-12.23B in November. Finally, the NIESR GDP estimate for the three months to December resulted at 0.6%, beating expectations of 0.5%.

Despite broad dollar's weakness, the pair is unable to turn bullish short term, for what it would need to surpass the 1.3560/70 price zone, with a stronger confirmation from a bullish breakout of the 1.3612 high set last week. The 4 hours chart presents a neutral-to-bearish stance, as the intraday advance was capped by a horizontal 20 SMA, while technical indicators hold right below their mid-lines, although with limited directional strength. Below 1.3510, the pair could retest its daily lows, en route to the 1.3445 level, the next intraday support.